"Ignoring boreal forests could speed up global warming"

An interesting article by Paul Sutherland popped up on Mongabay yesterday, discussing a new report in Conversation Letters that global temperatures may start to increase even faster if more is not done to protect our boreal forests.

According to Jon Moen, an author of the report, “The absence of boreal forests from global policy agendas on sustainable development and climate change mitigation represents a massive missed opportunity for environmental protection.” Given that “about half of the boreal forest has been managed or exploited, and the rest is more or less virgin,” Moen and co-authors suggest that “a first approach could be to protect the virgin forests that are left, and increase the focus on sustainable forestry with a focus on multiple ecosystem services in the rest.”

This reflects in large part the science and recommendations guiding Greenpeace’s campaign for a healthy Boreal that can support communities and retain its ecological value for future generations: focusing on key Boreal areas which are still relatively intact and have the greatest potential for conservation, while promoting sustainable development in parallel to protection.

Canada is covered by over half of the world’s intact boreal forest, storing a massive 208 billion tonnes of carbon. Canada’s boreal also contains the largest area of surface freshwater on earth, along with a wealth of biodiversity.

Most recently, Resolute went so far as to launch a lawsuit against its own independent Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) auditor, The Rainforest Alliance. According to court documents, the purpose of this legal action is to suppress Rainforest Alliance's audit citing Resolute with "non-compliance with FSC standards" in two Boreal areas in Ontario. This would result in a total of 4 certificates, totaling 8.7 million hectares of forest, suspended since January. Previous suspensions arose from the company's failure to conserve high conservation value forest, ensure the survival of endangered species and respect Indigenous rights.

While Resolute struggles to internalize the science that must guide sustainable development in Canada’s Boreal, I remain optimistic that they can, and will one day, open up to collaboration. The implications of ignoring this science are too grave for the planet to ignore